Out of Darkness: The Story of Louis Braille

Travel Guide

Paris

At the age of three, Louis had an accident in his father’s workshop, resulting in permanent blindness in both eyes. Heartbreakingly, it is said that Braille didn’t realize at first that he had lost his sight, and often asked why it was always dark. He learned to navigate the village and countryside with canes his father  made especially for him.

Haüy method

The school created books using an ingenious technique of embossing paper with raised imprints of Latin letters. This was called the Haüy method after the school’s founder. Haüy wasn’t blind himself but spent his life trying to improve their lot in life. This system worked well but it was slow and cumbersome and the pupils couldn’t write themselves using it. It was also said to be wrong in the sense that you were talking to the fingers using the language of the eyes”

Barbier System

In 1821, Braille learned of a communication system devised by Captain Charles Barbier of the French Army. He had invented a system of “night writing” which was a code of dots and dashes impressed into thick paper. Soliders could therefore read in the dark without the need to speak top each other and have light. Braille found it too complicated for everyday use but this inspired him to create his own.

Braille later became a teacher at the school where he himself had studied. The school wanted to keep the system it had in place and only replaced it with Braille’s system two years after his death as his pupils insisted upon it.